Should a future New Democrat government pledge to provide drug addicts with free, high-quality, contaminant-free pharmaceutical versions of their street drugs of choice to cut down on deaths related to “junky lung disease”?

Is it time for Canada to follow the lead of France, Switzerland and Spain and formally recognize — and commemorate — the contributions of the Canadians who fought alongside the republican forces in the Spanish Civil War?

After winning a leadership race fought in part on competing plans to combat and mitigate climate change, should Jagmeet Singh be required to present party members with a detailed strategy to do so between now and the next federal election?

Speaking of elections — and specifically, the most recent federal go-round when, according to New Democrats in Pickering-Uxbridge, the party “appeared to be on the right of the Liberals … in terms of spending and balancing budgets,” should the existing finance and budgetary policy sections be dropped from the policy book entirely?

And two years after the party rewrote the preamble to its constitution to reduce the use of the word “socialism” to “a mere background reference,” should they now take steps to “bring socialism back” by expanding the text to include a full definition of the term as “a cooperative commonwealth in which public ownership and democratic control by working people of the major means of production”?

Those are just a few of the questions that almost certainly won’t make it to the plenary floor when New Democrats descend on Ottawa for the party’s biennial policy convention this weekend.

Like most major political parties, when it comes to policy conventions, the New Democrats invariably end up with a far longer list of resolutions than delegates could possibly have time to debate.

Instead, the party executive sets up a committee to assemble a draft priority list, which slots all eligible proposals into one of seven categories — six based on the subject matter and one reserved for constitutional and other party administration issues — in the order in which resolutions will be considered.

Although the committee isn’t obliged to explain the reasons for their rankings, it’s usually not hard to see why certain resolutions just don’t make the cut. In the section on governance, for instance, there are so many resolutions focused on electoral reform that several wound up on the bottom of the list, most likely to carve out some space for other issues to be brought forward for discussion.

Others, however — like the Quebec NDP Youth Wing’s proposal to offer full benefits and other tributes to Spanish Civil War veterans — likely simply weren’t seen as having a shot at winning the widespread support of the voting delegates, at least in the judgment of the committee.

The resulting list — which leads with those proposals most likely to pass with near-unanimous support at the top, while — let’s call them more ‘niche’ proposals relegated to the back of the book, which, from the perspective of their supporters, effectively kills any chance of moving forward.

It’s worth noting, however, that from a strategic perspective, a surprising number of those resolutions deemed unlikely to win on the floor would almost certainly be of interest to the media assigned to cover the convention, as was the case during the extended battle over removing ‘socialism’ from the preamble, which are often not among the headlines the party is hoping to generate.

There is one last avenue of appeal, however — the “resolution panels,” which are divvied up by category and held just before the convention is called to order.

During those sessions — which were historically off-limits to media, although that hasn’t always been the case in recent years — delegates not only get their first opportunity to debate, and vote on the resolutions before them, but can also re-order the priority list.

Such efforts do occasionally succeed — particularly if a specific resolution has the backing of a critical mass of sufficiently motivated group of delegates who are willing to show up at those meetings and push to get their proposal bumped up the list.

In most cases, though, those last-minute pushes fall short of the necessary numbers, prompting disappointed supporters to grumble, once again, about the lack of convention time allocated to plenary.

In fact, such complaints regularly produce resolutions that propose to amend party policy to spend virtually the entire convention debating policy on the main floor.

In any case, even almost certainly doomed resolutions deserve a moment in the spotlight.

Here’s a sampling from the bottom of the draft priority list for this year’s convention:

Reducing Mortality Among Drug Addicts

Peterborough–Kawartha

Whereas many of the acute deaths of drug addicts are due to drugs whose effect is higher than expected or are contaminated with other drugs, for just one example, cocaine mixed with an unknown quantity of fentanyl; and

Whereas many long-term deaths of drug addicts are due to drugs to which compounds such as talcum powder have been added to dilute the drug resulting in “Junky*” lung disease;

Therefore, be it resolved that section 3.1 of the Policy Book be amended to read:

1) a New Democratic government will provide drugs of the same types as street drugs but produced to the same standard that the best quality pharmaceuticals are, with no contaminants and free of charge; and 2) addicts to whom the pharmaceutical grade drugs are administered will be offered counselling designed to help them break the habit.

Socialism Back in the NDP Constitution

Beaches–East York, Etobicoke North

Whereas reduction of the term “socialism” in the federal NDP Constitution preamble in 2013 to a mere background reference concerning the roots of the CCF-NDP implies that the party today uncritically embraces the capitalist system, which is characterized by growing inequality, waste, environmental destruction, war and economic chaos;

And whereas the 2015 NDP federal election campaign, which focused on non-mandated policies calling for a balanced budget at all costs, and no major new taxes on corporations and the rich, represented a further shift away from traditional NDP values;

Therefore Be It Resolved that this convention amends the federal NDP Constitution to include in its preamble the following: “Socialism, a cooperative commonwealth in which public ownership and democratic control by working people of the major means of production.

RECOGNITION OF CANADIAN VETERANS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

JNDQ (Jeunes néodémocrates du Québec)

WHEREAS:

• Canadian veterans of the Spanish Civil War have been wrongly denied their recognition as legitimate veterans.

• The NDP is committed to the protection and expansion of veteran’s rights.

• Other countries, such as France, Spain, and Switzerland have recognized and honored the Spanish Civil war veterans of their respective countries.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

• All Canadian veterans who have served in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, or other divisions of the international brigades, be eligible to qualify for any and all Veteran’s benefits.

• The aforementioned veterans be eligible to join any Royal Canadian Legion branch.

• The names of those Canadian soldiers who have given their lives during the war be preserved in the Books of Remembrance at the Peace tower of the Houses of Parliament.

• The sacrifice of the aforementioned soldiers be commemorated at all Remembrance Day services, and at all federal war monuments.

• A commission shall be formed to investigate cases of discrimination and harassment by the RCMP and by employers.

• The Canadian government issue a formal apology to these veterans for their mistreatment and their denial of recognition

Leader’s Climate Change Mitigation Plan

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount

WHEREAS concrete action on climate change is urgent;

WHEREAS the existing “Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change” negotiated by the Liberal government is unlikely to fulfill Canada’s commitments under the Paris Agreement;

WHERAS during the 2017 leadership contest all the candidates provided details of their proposed plans for mitigating climate change;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Leader will undertake the creation of an overall, comprehensive NDP climate change mitigation plan includes specific targets and that will be proposed during next federal election by integrating the relevant parts of the proposed climate change plans of all the candidates, as well as ideas solicited from the membership through the riding associations;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Leader report back to the membership the details of the comprehensive plan; BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the membership be given an opportunity to respond to the plan in a timely manner prior to the next federal election

Removing Finance and Budgetary Policy from Policy Book

Pickering–Uxbridge

WHEREAS Canada’s government must prioritize the people over any impulse to commit austerity

• WHEREAS the NDP appeared to be on the Right of the Liberals in the last election in terms of spending and balancing budgets

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Section 1.6 shall be removed from the policy book.